MT-09 OWN­ERS SAY

JACK DOOLAN owns a 2016 MT-09 Miles cov­ered: 6000 It’s a great com­bi­na­tion of torque, light weight, wheel­ies, com­fort and price. The trac­tion con­trol is very ba­sic, though, and quite in­tru­sive. Same with the ABS, which ac­ti­vates too soon. The sus­pen­sion isn’t top notch but isn’t too cat­a­strophic com­pared to most bud­get bikes.

Am I con­sid­er­ing the new MT-09? No, I could get Öh­lins sus­pen­sion front and rear, plus a quick­shifter and an ECU flash for less than what it would cost me to re­place my cur­rent one. I’m not crazy for the new styling, ei­ther. FIÓNA TOOGOOD owns a 2016 MT-09 Miles cov­ered: 5600 I didn’t even re­alise I wanted one un­til I test rode one at the MCN Fes­ti­val in Peter­bor­ough. By June I had one and was hav­ing the best time of my life!

I like its hooli­gan looks, the way it’s easy to sling around cor­ners and its awe­some torque. The throttle is snatchy, but it’s bril­liant value for money. I’d love a 2017 MT-09, but only if MCN buys it for me, so I’ll stick with my 2016 one. CON­NOR WYLDE owns a 2014 MT-09 Miles cov­ered: 12,500

I loved the looks of the MT from the mo­ment it was re­leased and knew I had to have one. It has such a strong mo­tor and a sub­lime ex­haust note, es­pe­cially with an Akrapovic car­bon sys­tem. I’m so happy with it at the mo­ment I can’t see my­self chang­ing for any­thing else in the next cou­ple of years.

The sus­pen­sion is un­der damped, but I have one of the ear­lier mod­els, and the 14-litre tank could do with be­ing 16 litres as its tank range can as low as 100 miles if you ride it hard. Un­for­tu­nately I can­not stand the vis­ual up­dates of the new MT-09. It looks like a kid’s space toy. A shame be­cause I would have up­graded just for the QS, slip­per clutch and TC!